question about rhyming

[visigoth]

I read War and Peace earlier this year and noticed that some poems/songs rhymed in English yet it was translated from Russian. I didn't pay it too much attention but now I'm reading Steppenwolf and poems are rhyming in English even though it is translated from German. Why is this? Do the translators see that it rhymes in the native language and feel they need to make it rhyme in English? I would rather have the exact translation and maybe just a footnote telling me that it rhymes in the native tongue. I feel that some verses must be drastically changed just to make them rhyme. Does anyone know anything about this?

Thanks,
visigoth

 

[beer good]

All translations - not just poetry - are a matter of interpretation. If you read the same novel in the original language and then in translation, I'm sure you'll find it's not a word-for-word translation anywhere - at least not if the translator is even remotely competent; different words have different connotations in different languages, there are different idiomatic expressions, etc etc etc. The same applies both to prose and poetry (after all, what's the difference between translating a poem or song in a novel and translating a poem or song on its own?)

Also, part of the point of a poem is that it IS a poem. If you translate it into prose, you lose part of the original author's intention. Personally, I'd be very disappointed if I read a book where the hero, say, recites a powerful poem and it's translated as a fairly dull and literal prose text.

A good translator should be able to translate both the form, the spirit, and the content of a text. (But I don't envy them; it's certainly not easy.)